Sweet Dreams, Terra
by IndigoJane92
Summary: Just a quick one-shot. Beast boy goes to visit Terra, or what's left of her...


Sweet Dreams, Terra

Beast Boy sat the table with his friends, uncharacteristically quiet. Today was Thursday; his day to choose dinner. He'd picked vegetarian pizza, his favorite, yet tonight he found his appetite had abandoned him.

"Yo, B! Eat up, man! You ordered this thing," grumbled Cyborg, the king of all meat-lovers.

"Beast Boy, are you feeling alright?" Robin, the head of the team, asked. The Boy Wonder looked up from picking tomato chunks off his slice of pizza and added, "It's not like you to not eat. And this is your favorite…" he said, gesturing to the pizza.

Beast Boy felt a knot in his stomach. It had been there all week, and it was only getting worse. Tonight he was actually skipping dinner, and he'd been too distracted yesterday to even notice when Cyborg beat him at their GameStation tournament. It was a knot of guilt. He hadn't been to see Terra in over three weeks. The local bad guys seemed to be attacking the city all at once lately, and he could never find any time to visit her. But tonight he'd finally get to escape.

Thinking fast, he replied, "Yeah, dude, guess I'm just worn out. Think I'll hit the sack early tonight." It wasn't like him to lie to his friends, but tonight it had to be done. He feigned a yawn for good measure as he scraped his chair back from the table. He bid his friends goodnight and waved weakly as he left the room. He knew they suspected something was wrong with him, but it was easier all around to keep this secret to himself.

Once the door of his bedroom shut behind him, Beast Boy tossed a few items into a small knapsack, shut the lights off and lay on his bed. He shifted into his canine form and listened to the sounds of his friends slowly going about their nightly routines. Then, when he was finally sure no one was awake to come looking for him, he shifted to his eagle form and flew out his window into the night, the small knapsack clutched firmly in his talons. He flew at top speed across the darkened city, beyond the large rural houses, and farther still until he reached the smaller mountains. It was nearly pitch black out there, even for an eagle, and the moon was a mere weak sliver in the sky, but Beast Boy didn't need his eyes; his heart knew the way.

At last he reached the familiar mountain that housed a now dead volcano. He made a hurried landing, changed back to his human form, and fumbled in his bag for a flashlight, nearly dropping it twice. Switching on the brilliant LED beam, Beast Boy hitched his bag over his shoulder, stashed his communicator in a crevice near the mouth of the cave, and stepped into the gaping tunnel at the base of the mountain. It wasn't long before he reached Terra's...home. He couldn't bring himself to think of it as her tomb. He'd watched her turn to stone before his very eyes, and he'd seen her statue over a hundred times now, but he just didn't feel like she was gone. And on these special nights when he could sneak out to visit her, he could allow himself to pretend she was still alive.

"Terra, it's me! I'm back!" he called out into the darkness. At last, his flashlight beam found the stone girl, and Beast Boy started running towards her. With every step he could feel the knot in his stomach unraveling. He felt as if he'd been holding his breath for weeks, and only now could breathe again. When he finally reached the stone girl, he stopped. Like always, his eyes read over the plaque at her feet, and a familiar sadness filled him. But he shook it off as he looked up into Terra's eyes. The cold, grey, stone eyes that had once been a brilliantly clear blue. "How've you been?" he asked, keeping his dark emotions out of his voice. He didn't want her to see how sad he'd become. She liked it when he laughed with her and cracked jokes; she wouldn't want to see sorrow in his eyes.

As he looked up at the statue girl awaiting an answer, he saw her familiar ghost take shape around the grey stone form. He could see her blond hair again, floating in an unfelt breeze. He could see her bright blue eyes, her smile...He wasn't sure if this hallucination was really her ghost visiting him, or if it came from inside his head. He got to see Terra again, though, and that's all that mattered. He quickly propped up the flashlight in a crack in the ground and aimed it up at the ceiling, flooding the room with its mild light, before sitting down on the damp cave floor in front of the statue.

After a moment, her ghostly expression saddened as she looked down at the shape shifter. "I thought you forgot about me..." she whispered.

"Of course not! How could I forget you, Terra? You're my...best friend," he bit his tongue in regret. He'd never gotten to tell her his true feelings before she'd...left. He hated himself for that. He was such a coward. He couldn't tell her how he felt, and he couldn't save her from the erupting volcano. He blamed the volcano for Terra's turning to stone, even though Raven claimed it had been the girl's own powers taking over her body.

The ghostly image flickered briefly before rewarding the green boy with a smile. "You're my best friend, too, Beast Boy." And just like that, the shapeshifter felt his inner turmoil subside. Terra had that effect on him. She could always brighten his mood.

"Am I your best friend in the whole entire universe?" he teased, raising one eyebrow.

"Hmm...I don't know...Cyborg was a good friend, too. And there was Starfire, and Robin..." she ticked off the names on her fingers.

Beast Boy cried out, speechless with shock and betrayal.

Seeing this, Terra winked one blue eye at the changeling and whispered, "Just kidding!" She saw Beast Boy's expression change to surprise as she said this, and let out a laugh.

Beast Boy was going to at least pretend to be mad at her for pulling such a cruel prank, but the sound of her laugh paralyzed him. It was the same laugh he remembered from what seemed like just yesterday, back before she'd...gone. He missed that laugh. Instead of being angry or continuing on with the joke, he simply joined in laughing, finding he couldn't help himself.

As the night went on, Terra talked to him about all kinds of things. Beast Boy told her about the most recent pranks he'd pulled at the Tower. Even though they were some of the oldest tricks in the book, and only half of them worked as he'd planned, Terra laughed genuinely at each story. She asked him how things were going with the rest of the Team. She even asked him about things in the city; what bad guys they'd fought, how they won, if the video store had gotten anything good. That made Beast Boy especially depressed. He wanted to take Terra back into town with him, take her back to the Tower and have their lives return to normal. But, despite his best efforts, he never could get her to leave the cave. It was almost like she was stuck to that statue. Once, a long time ago, he'd been so desperate and upset he'd tried taking her ghostly hand, intending to run with her from the cave. Instead, his hand had gone right through hers until it found cold, hard stone. He couldn't hold her hand, and she couldn't leave. It had made them both sad, and nothing Terra had said that night could cheer him up. But he didn't want to think about that now. Tonight they were together, talking and laughing just like old times, and Beast Boy never wanted the night to end.

Soon, though, his body began to betray him. He felt fatigue and hunger start to break through his happy delirium and remind him of the real world. He tried not to let it get to him, but Terra noticed right away.

"You're tired," she said. It wasn't a question, but he knew she still expected an answer. Unfortunately, the shapeshifter was too busy pretending he wasn't holding back a yawn to respond. He knew that if he opened his mouth, it would escape.

"Go on, Beast Boy, it's late," she said with a sad smile.

"But, Terra-!" he protested, the yawn suddenly forgotten.

"Go, I'm fine. I'll be here when you come back," she insisted, making shooing motions with her transparent hands.

"...Promise?"

"Promise."

At last, Beast Boy agreed to go, knowing deep down that if he stayed out too long he wouldn't have the energy to fly home. He turned to pick up his flashlight, then stopped as he suddenly remembered something. Reaching into the bag on his back, he withdrew a light yellow blanket and draped it across the statue's frozen shoulders. Terra's ghost smiled at him in thanks. Then, the green boy pulled a spare communicator out of his pocket and placed it at the girl's feet.

"Will you call me if you need anything?" he asked, directing his emerald gaze up into her ghostly blue eyes with hope. He'd thought of the communicator a few days ago and wondered why it hadn't occurred to him sooner. This way, he could talk to Terra whenever he wanted, even if he couldn't get away from the tower. He'd feel so much better knowing she was just a button press away.

The girl's image flickered sharply like an old silent film, and for a second Beast Boy thought he caught a sad expression on her face. But a moment later she was back to normal. Well, almost normal. Flashing a smile that could light up a room, Terra finally replied, "Good night, Beast Boy."

Her brief silence was worse than any answer she could've given. "Sweet dreams, Terra," he whispered back before running out of the cave so she couldn't see his tears.


End file.
